Recaps

Qin Manjiang and Flower went undercover at a lavish Moon City party to identify a high-status hunter, armed with information from Star’s reality-based divination. At the banquet, Qin Manjiang encountered Mi Qiao, whom he recognized and greeted as someone who had been promoted quickly.

• Flower explained that a hunter planned to kill prey at the party under the rules, and said Star’s divination had revealed the coming event without identifying the people involved or its outcome.
• Flower and Qin Manjiang changed into formal clothes and entered the banquet, where Qin Manjiang received a white tulip and Flower received a red rose.
• Flower went to investigate the host while Qin Manjiang mingled with the guests and spoke with Xie Jia of Moon City’s Xie Group.
• Qin Manjiang watched Mi Qiao, and she approached him after their eyes met; Xie Jia introduced them before leaving.
• Qin Manjiang shook Mi Qiao’s hand and remarked that she had been promoted quickly.

Mi Qiao warned Qin Manjiang that Moon City's powerful figures knew about Jiang Du's planned resurrection and would target Qin Manjiang if they discovered him. At the banquet, Qin Manjiang recognized Xinxin onstage and then identified the returning violinist as Lian Yan, the villain protagonist of [Ping'an Hospital].

• Qin Manjiang confronted Mi Qiao at the banquet, and she led him away to warn him to leave Moon City.
• Mi Qiao revealed that she had investigated whether Jiang Du had returned to life and told Qin Manjiang that Moon City's powerful figures would become interested in him if he stayed.
• Qin Manjiang inferred that Kong had brought him to the banquet to draw out the hidden force in Moon City.
• Flower told Qin Manjiang that the banquet's host was a famous violinist who had recently reappeared, but the hall lights dimmed before she could finish.
• Qin Manjiang saw Xinxin onstage and then recognized the violinist playing by the window as Lian Yan.

At Lian Yan’s banquet, Qin Manjiang learned that Lian Yan had returned from [Ping'an Hospital] to the real world and had found Xinxin trapped in a photograph. Lian Yan tried to get Qin Manjiang out before the banquet turned deadly, but the doors sealed and the lights went out, leaving them trapped in a killing game.

• Lian Yan approached Qin Manjiang, greeted him as an old acquaintance, and asked Flower to leave them alone.
• Lian Yan introduced himself as being from Moon City and brought Xinxin over, explaining that she had emerged from a photograph like a doll without a soul.
• Qin Manjiang asked whether Xinxin was dead, and Lian Yan said he did not know.
• Lian Yan grabbed Qin Manjiang’s wrist and tried to lead him out, warning that Moon City’s banquet was a hunting ground.
• The hotel doors slammed shut, the lights vanished, and guests screamed as sounds of chewing and tearing filled the darkness.
• Lian Yan apologized for failing to get Qin Manjiang out and announced that the banquet’s theme was killing.

Qin Manjiang witnessed Lian Yan’s Killing Feast, in which Permanent Item holders hunted other Players and the hotel grounds were sealed off. Lian Yan explained Moon City’s rules and revealed that he was Lian Yan, the one who had broken free of the Ghost Story’s restraints.

• After the lights returned, Qin Manjiang saw five men brutally kill five women in the banquet hall, and another group attack began among the fleeing Guests.
• The Guests discovered that police calls could not connect and armed forces had blocked the roads, shooting at people who tried to escape.
• Lian Yan told Qin Manjiang that Xinxin was a soulless puppet and led him toward the rooftop, saying only three winners were allowed in the game.
• Lian Yan explained that he had altered Moon City’s Eye Realm into a Killing Feast, where Permanent Item holders hunted Players and the last ten survivors would advance.
• Qin Manjiang recalled Lian Yan’s name from Ping'an Hospital, and Lian Yan said he was the one who had broken free of the Ghost Story’s restraints.

On the rooftop, Lian Yan explained the Paleontology Research Association’s connection to the [Eye Realm] and revealed that it could imitate the realm by fusing real places with Ghost Story Worlds. Qin Manjiang connected that ability to Lower River Village.

• Lian Yan showed Qin Manjiang the armed men surrounding the banquet and explained that they belonged to an alliance of nonplayers who knew about the [Eye Realm].
• Lian Yan warned Qin Manjiang to stay away from Moon City after tonight and named the organization as the Paleontology Research Association.
• Lian Yan said the association believed the [Eye Realm] offered a path to godhood, unlike his view that its inhabitants were merely playthings.
• Lian Yan revealed that the association could imitate the [Eye Realm] by turning real villages into places fused with Ghost Story Worlds.
• Qin Manjiang remembered Lower River Village as a possible example of the association’s experiments.

Qin Manjiang watched an out-of-control player’s power turn the banquet into a massacre and help guests break through the Paleontology Research Association’s blockade. He recognized his sister Qin Manyi among those fleeing and rushed downstairs, where they reunited.

• Lian Yan explained that the out-of-control player’s permanent item had triggered a hunting rule and showed no intention of stopping the slaughter.
• Qin Manjiang spotted a red car charging the blockade, then watched the guests affected by the power attack the gunmen and escape.
• Qin Manjiang recognized Qin Manyi stepping out of the red car and hurried to the first floor, fearing she was the out-of-control player.
• Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi met at the hotel entrance, and Qin Manyi exclaimed, "Brother!"

Qin Manjiang reunited with Qin Manyi at the Yuelai Hotel, where the Paleontology Research Association attacked them under Doctor’s orders. Kong received Doctor’s device for forcing open the [Eye Realm] door and revealed that Jiang Du had returned to life as part of a plan tied to Moon City’s final stage.

• Qin Manjiang found Qin Manyi at the Yuelai Hotel and pulled her away from a Red Car explosion.
• A helicopter opened fire on Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi, driving them into the hotel as Doctor watched and demanded that the attack become more dangerous.
• Doctor gave Lin an [Eye Realm] phone for Yan Xiao, then admitted to Kong that he had invited Qin Manjiang to Moon City as a possible key to the realm.
• Doctor gave Kong a device that could force open the [Eye Realm] door, while Kong said he intended to enter despite having already died once.
• Kong recalled that Jiang Du had returned to life and shared their goal concerning Moon City's final stage, then urged Yi Lianhai to survive until the end.

Yi Lianhai recalled how Jiang Du and Zuo Xian discovered the Eye Realm, then resolved to force Jiang Du’s return through Qin Manjiang. As Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi hid in the Yuelai Hotel basement, they encountered the waitress who had given him a white tulip, and he sensed something was wrong with her.

• Twenty years earlier, Zuo Xian, Yi Lianhai, and Jiang Du independently discovered the Eye Realm, and Zuo Xian and Jiang Du later entered it as players.
• Jiang Du and Zuo Xian grew distant and changed, then clashed after apparently learning a truth about the Eye Realm.
• Jiang Du gave Yi Lianhai a phone and told him to find a young man who looked like him in Fu City twenty years later.
• Three days after a rainy day, Yi Lianhai learned that Jiang Du had died and Zuo Xian had vanished, while everyone else from the Moon City Eye Realm had died without leaving remains.
• Yi Lianhai believed Jiang Du could return through Qin Manjiang and warned Kong not to interfere with his plans.
• Qin Manjiang carried Qin Manyi into the Yuelai Hotel basement to escape the gunfire and encountered the tulip-giving waitress, sensing something was wrong with her.

Lian Yan killed the flower-mutated waitress in the hotel cellar, but her Permanent Item disappeared, suggesting someone else had taken it. After calling off the lockdown, he warned Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi to stay below and gave Qin Manjiang his contact information before leaving.

• Qin Manjiang realized the flowers might have caused the guests’ mutations and discarded the white tulip in his pocket.
• Lian Yan arrived and identified the waitress, whose neck and face transformed into a bloody flower.
• Lian Yan used arms emerging from the waitress’s shadow to drag her into it and kill her.
• Lian Yan noticed a figure at the cellar entrance and found that the waitress’s Permanent Item had vanished.
• Lian Yan lifted the lockdown, warned Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi about the people upstairs, and gave Qin Manjiang his business card before leaving.

Qin Manjiang reunited with Qin Manyi and learned how her unusual transfer from Fu City’s Eye Realm to Moon City had drawn the interest of her boss, who suspected the Lower River Village ghost story was artificial. After realizing Flower may have reclaimed a Permanent Item that once belonged to her, Qin Manjiang agreed to go with his sister to her boss’s home, despite the boss refusing to meet men.

• Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi waited in the wine cellar while Lian Yan went out to deal with the hostile organization, and Qin Manyi explained that she had come to the hotel by accident while making a delivery.
• Qin Manjiang confronted Qin Manyi about cutting off contact, and she told him her boss had forbidden her from contacting him because it might put him in danger.
• Qin Manyi revealed that her boss believed the Lower River Village ghost story was artificial and had been created by someone from Moon City, causing Qin Manyi to be absorbed into Moon City’s Eye Realm.
• Qin Manjiang inferred that Qin Manyi’s boss was likely an Escapee Player who wanted to exploit differences between the Eye Realm systems, and he asked to meet her.
• Qin Manjiang recalled seeing Flower take the out-of-control player’s Permanent Item [Flower] and suspected it had belonged to Flower twenty years earlier.
• Qin Manyi offered Qin Manjiang a place to stay at her boss’s home, and he agreed because neither of them had money for another option.

Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi drove to her boss’s seafood shop, where Qin Manyi asked for her brother to be given a place to stay. The boss agreed after seeing him asleep, but his arrival stirred memories of someone from her past.

• Qin Manjiang wondered why he felt no appetite for Qin Manyi and suspected it was because she belonged to Moon City’s Eye Realm.
• Qin Manyi drove Qin Manjiang through Moon City without a license, and they bickered until he fell asleep in the van.
• Qin Manyi told her boss about the trouble at Yuelai Hotel and asked if Qin Manjiang could stay in the shop.
• The boss saw Qin Manjiang sleeping in the van and allowed him to stay in the empty room at the back of the shop.
• The boss reflected that Qin Manjiang’s return reminded her of someone from the past, though she knew he was not that person.

Yan Xiao recalled the stormy night when Chen Zhiyuan used Yang’s phone to make the Continuation Pen write a possible future, then asked Yan to record it. After Chen survived the pen’s cost but forgot what he had written, Yan left determined to help every player in Fu City survive.

• Yan Xiao woke in Fu City and saw that his reflection seemed to flicker, reminding him that his time was running out.
• During the [Wedding Dress] storm, Chen Zhiyuan asked Yan Xiao to record what the Continuation Pen produced after he used Yang’s phone as a clue.
• Chen Zhiyuan dictated a possible future involving the Eye Realm, Zuo Xian, Yang, Fu City, and a costly effort to keep the world going.
• Chen Zhiyuan nearly died from using the pen, but Yan Xiao gave him Adrenaline and stabilized him.
• Chen Zhiyuan later forgot what he had written and spoke of worrying about Zhong Xueran and wanting more people to survive.
• Yan Xiao left in the rain and called a doctor, asking for every player in Fu City to be kept alive.

After half a month of quiet in Moon City, Qin Manjiang learned that his impostor was searching for two players from another era and heard that Spirit Pupils might fuel uncanny powers and ghost stories. A new round of the Ghost Story Game began, and Qin Manjiang prepared to leave for the next scenario.

• Shen Hai told Qin Manjiang that his Permanent Item had revealed two players from another era in Fu City's [Eye Realm], and that [Qin Manjiang] was likely searching for them.
• Qin Manjiang discussed Hunters and Spirit Pupils with Qin Manyi, who said Hunters gained the Spirit Pupils of players they killed and that an organization in Moon City was collecting them.
• Qin Manyi revealed that her boss had been asking about Qin Manjiang's personality and habits, leading him to conclude she was checking whether he was Jiang Du.
• Qin Manjiang suddenly felt the familiar palpitations and panic that signaled a new ghost story, then told Qin Manyi he was going to see some ghosts.

The players returned to the Eye Realm and learned that ghosts had begun targeting them in the real world. The seventh Ghost Story, “Seven Children,” began with the pupils selecting Professor as its first participant.

• Qin Manjiang noticed that only twenty-odd players had returned to the Eye Realm, and the others suspected the masked Professor because of the bloodstains on his apron.
• Nie Yunzhen told the players that several companions had lost contact after ghosts targeted them in the real world, prompting speculation about who was behind the disappearances.
• The seventh Ghost Story appeared with the title “Seven Children,” a cryptic message, and no time limit.
• The Eye Realm’s pupils focused on Professor, who was marked in red as the first participant.
• Qin Manjiang realized that he had not been selected this time and wondered whether his earlier involvement had been an unusual insertion into a game.

The Eye Realm selected seven players for the [Seven Children] Ghost Story, assembling a lineup that other players considered unusually reliable. Qin Manjiang realized that the fake [Abyss] had been chosen alongside him as [Professor], leaving their confrontation inside the Ghost Story uncertain.

• The Eye Realm selected Li Xijiu, Lin Ruonan, Chen Xin, Wu Tiansheng, and Hu Feifei after [Professor].
• The players admired the strong lineup, which included capable teammates known for reliability and skill.
• The seventh selection was [Abyss], the impostor, and Qin Manjiang recognized that he would face him in the same Ghost Story.
• Shen Hai, Yan Xiao, and Yu Ruoli looked to Qin Manjiang with concern, while most players celebrated the lineup.

Qin Manjiang experienced the life of Xiao Qi, a child raised by abusive adoptive parents and forced to steal with six other children in snowy Fu City. After the children planned their escape and set fire to the house, Qin Manjiang woke in the snow, realizing he was Xiao Qi.

• The seven chosen players were transported into the Ghost Story: Seven Children, set in Fu City in 2007.
• Qin Manjiang dreamed of Xiao Qi, a boy who endured beatings and was forced to steal for his adoptive parents.
• When one of the seven children fell ill in the snow, Xiao Qi returned from another neighborhood with meat buns and injuries.
• The children planned to flee their abusive home after revealing that they had set a fire, drugged and restrained their adoptive parents, and taken the money.
• The adoptive parents' house burned down as they screamed threats from the flames.
• Qin Manjiang awoke in the snow and realized he was Xiao Qi.

Qin Manjiang entered the Ghost Story [Seven Children] as Xiao Qi and teamed up with Wu Tiansheng, who was playing A-Si, to find the meeting place. They met Hu Feifei and pieced together their invitations into half a route map before discovering a corpse in the snow.

• Qin Manjiang woke in a snowstorm with an invitation that said the twelve-year pact was over and the group should meet at the old place.
• Qin Manjiang met Wu Tiansheng, and they identified themselves as Xiao Qi and A-Si before setting off in the direction they had both been facing.
• Wu Tiansheng helped Qin Manjiang travel through the storm, and they found Hu Feifei along the way.
• Qin Manjiang noticed that the golden patterns on their invitations fit together, and he, Wu Tiansheng, and Hu Feifei assembled half of a route map.
• Hu Feifei spotted a pale, withered face emerging from the snow at her feet.

Wu Tiansheng, Hu Feifei, and Qin Manjiang found a mummified corpse with Wu Tiansheng’s face and suspected the players were reenacting the children’s deaths. The two groups followed their invitation maps and reunited in the snow, where Xia Nan identified himself as Xiao Ba, leaving the group to wonder whether an eighth child had existed.

• Wu Tiansheng, Hu Feifei, and Qin Manjiang found a mummified corpse bearing Wu Tiansheng’s face and discussed whether the players were reenacting the children’s deaths.
• Qin Manjiang used the invitations’ glowing map to determine their route, and the three continued toward a possible meeting point.
• Xia Nan, Chen Xin, Lin Ruonan, and [Abyss] followed another snowy road, while Xia Nan felt that Qin Manjiang treated him like a stranger.
• The two groups reunited in the blizzard and introduced the characters they were playing.
• Xia Nan said he was Xiao Ba, and Qin Manjiang wondered whether someone was lying or whether an eighth child had existed.

After assembling the invitations into a route map, Qin Manjiang and the others found themselves compelled to act out conversations as if following a script. The group learned that the seven had returned to the mountain twelve years after escaping the Demon Cave, but their present-day relationships were strained.

• Wu Tiansheng suggested assembling the invitations, and the group formed a complete route map pointing toward a door-shaped symbol.
• After the map was completed, Hu Feifei, Chen Xin, Lin Ruonan, and Qin Manjiang began speaking and moving as though controlled by a script.
• Lin Ruonan told Qin Manjiang that the group had no supplies and warned him to obey her, hinting that he was good at deceiving people.
• Abyss asked Wu Tiansheng to leave the others behind and travel with him, but Wu Tiansheng refused; Xia Nan agreed to go with Abyss.
• The players realized they could resist their prescribed actions, but doing so triggered an overwhelming sense of being watched and threatened.

The seven players regrouped on the freezing mountain and agreed to cooperate despite their characters’ conflicting interests. After sharing clues about their roles and past schemes, they decided they would have to alter the story’s automatic enactments when those threatened someone, even if doing so might trigger danger.

• Hu Feifei broke the silence after the feeling of being watched faded, and all seven players agreed to cooperate.
• Lin Ruonan revealed that Xiao San had urged Xiao Qi to repeat something they did twelve years ago, while Qin Manjiang said Xiao Qi was skilled at deception and suspected they had once gotten someone killed for supplies.
• Wu Tiansheng explained that A Er had planned to take A-Si to a small cave and abandon the others, but A-Si refused and A Er later recruited Xiao Ba to steal the remaining supplies.
• Hu Feifei revealed that Xiao Wu hated and feared Xiao Liu, and Chen Xin confirmed that Xiao Liu harbored ill will toward Xiao Wu.
• Chen Xin linked the opening’s choice between change and death to the automatic enactments, and Lin Ruonan urged everyone to change the plot when the next enactment threatened them.

The group debated how fate and the ghost story’s fixed plot worked, and Qin Manjiang proposed changing what they could without disrupting unavoidable events. As they assessed their scarce supplies and difficult mountain route, the second plot sequence began.

• Abyss asked the group for ideas about the ghost story’s worldview, and Wu Tiansheng and Lin Ruonan debated whether fate was predetermined.
• Qin Manjiang proposed distinguishing unavoidable constants from changeable variables and suggested preparing around fixed plot events rather than directly disrupting them.
• Hu Feifei supported the compromise of adding variables when possible and stopping a plot sequence only when that proved too difficult.
• Lin Ruonan revealed that the group had ten energy bars, while Wu Tiansheng warned that food, water, hypothermia, and the long climb threatened them.
• Hu Feifei spotted someone nearby, and the second plot sequence began.

A-Si and Xiao Liu followed the plot to investigate a figure and became trapped on a snowy mountain path, while Qin Manjiang and the others escaped the enactment only to encounter a terrifying creature. The chapter ended with both groups facing danger on the mountain.

• A-Si and Xiao Liu followed the figure into the snow, but the plot continued past the point where they expected to regain control.
• A-Si and Xiao Liu reached a path bordered by cliffs, and Chen Xin refused to move until Wu Tiansheng persuaded him that the way forward had not yet proved dangerous.
• Qin Manjiang, Abyss, and Lin Ruonan refused to follow the plot's order to investigate, ending the enactment state.
• Qin Manjiang and the others saw a gaunt figure in a white dress with a mass of legs beneath it, then fled up the mountain.

Qin Manjiang and the others searched for shelter on the snow-covered mountain while trying to avoid changing the plot and drawing the vengeful ghost closer. When the group resisted a proposal to split up, [Abyss] chose to leave alone, putting himself in immediate danger.

• Qin Manjiang and the others noticed that the vengeful ghost had disappeared and continued through the snow to find a campsite.
• Xia Nan warned Hu Feifei not to eat snow directly and explained how to warm packed snow between layers of clothing.
• The group’s plot triggered again, revealing that Xiao San remembered a nearby hunter’s cabin but not its exact location.
• [Abyss] proposed splitting up to search, but Xia Nan rejected the plan and urged everyone to stay together.
• [Abyss] announced that he would go alone and walked into the wind and snow.

Qin Manjiang and the others realized [Abyss] had deliberately escaped the group, stolen their energy bars, and manipulated the plot to draw the Vengeful Ghost after them. They reached the Hunter's Cabin and found supplies, while Qin Manjiang suspected [Abyss]'s plan might backfire.

• Lin Ruonan pointed out the Hunter's Cabin's location, then discovered the energy bars were missing and accused [Abyss] of taking them.
• Qin Manjiang spotted the Vengeful Ghost close behind them, and the four fled toward the Hunter's Cabin.
• Lin Ruonan led the group to the cabin, where they found a stove, firewood, matches, and dried meat, then Xia Nan barred the door.
• Qin Manjiang explained that [Abyss] had broken free during the plot enactment, stolen the energy bars, and used the others to keep the Vengeful Ghost occupied while he headed for shelter alone.
• Qin Manjiang said [Abyss]'s strategy might end up backfiring.

After becoming lost in a snowstorm, Chen Xin rested while Wu Tiansheng went ahead to search for a route. Chen Xin reflected on the strange behavior of [Abyss] and [Professor] and questioned whether the memories and scenes in [Seven Children] accurately reflected what had happened.

• Chen Xin and Wu Tiansheng became lost on a dangerous, snow-covered mountain trail as darkness approached.
• Wu Tiansheng cleared a rock for Chen Xin to rest and went ahead alone to look for a way forward.
• Chen Xin used his unusual ability to focus and recalled how players could escape a ghost story by looking beyond its plot logic.
• Chen Xin suspected that [Abyss] was not human because his expressions seemed repeated and mechanical.
• Chen Xin noticed that [Professor] shared some of [Abyss]'s habits, but performed them more naturally.
• Chen Xin questioned whether the players' shared memories of the seven children fleeing their adoptive home were reliable.